Omar Raises $830,000 for Re-Election Despite Trump Backlash

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who’s engaged in an intensifying feud with President Donald Trump, has raised nearly $830,000 in the first quarter for her re-election campaign, according to campaign finance reports filed this week, VOA news reports.

The Minnesota Democrat — a Somali American and one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress — drew many out-of-state contributions and had just over $600,000 cash on hand as of March 31.

Omar won election in November to a reliably liberal Minneapolis-area seat. Her remarks in recent months on Israel and the power of Jewish influence in Washington have drawn intense criticism and accusations of anti-Semitism, and prompted speculation that she might face a primary challenge. But no challenger has emerged, and progressives across the country have rallied to her side.

Trump told KSTP-TV during a visit to Minnesota on Monday that he has no regrets about tweeting a video Friday that attacked her for remarks she made last month that supposedly offered a flippant description of the Sept. 11 attacks and the terrorists who killed nearly 3,000 people.

“Look, she’s been very disrespectful to this country,” Trump said. “She’s been very disrespectful, frankly, to Israel…. She’s got a way about her that’s very, very bad, I think, for our country. I think she’s extremely unpatriotic and extremely disrespectful to our country.”

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Neither Trump’s tweet nor the video included Omar’s full quote or the context. She told the Council on American-Islamic Relations on March 23 that many Muslims saw their civil liberties eroded after the Sept. 11 attacks and were tired of being treated as second-class citizens.

“CAIR was founded after 9/11, because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” she said. While CAIR was founded in 1994, according to its website, its membership skyrocketed after the attacks.

Omar said Sunday that it’s more than a rhetorical squabble and that lives, including hers, are at stake. She spoke after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she has taken steps to ensure Omar’s safety. Pelosi also urged Trump to take down the video, but it was still in his Twitter feed Tuesday.